Mr. Wilson Heads to Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the dateline suggests, I write this post from my hotel room in Washington, D.C. I’m in town to attend the National Limousine Association’s Day On The Hill, an event intended to raise the visibility of the chauffeured transportation industry among the nation’s lawmakers.

A busy day of meetings are planned for today and Wednesday, as leaders of the NLA and state associations flood the halls of Capitol Hill. I’m genuinely interested to see how lawmakers respond to the limo industry’s concerns.

When I spoke with NLA president Gary Buffo a couple weeks back, he told me that recent tragedies involving limousines has drawn a spotlight to the industry. He expects safety to be a point of curiosity during meetings. I’d venture to guess, next year, the NLA may be addressing whatever regulations bubble to the surface.

This morning I sat in on the NLA board meeting, to see what issues the board is working on. Quite a few as you can imagine. And this afternoon, I’ll attend a policy briefing: one of the big lobbying fronts the NLA is working on is a pending consideration by the Department of Transportation on whether to make EOBR’s—or electronic onboard recorders—mandatory for limo vehicles. Currently the trucking is required to have these cameras.